Oppositions of vowel phonemes and their neutralization in the modern Russian language

As it is well known, the notions of the phonemes opposition, the neutralization of oppositions, archiphonemes as special phonological units were introduced into scientific use by Nikolay Trubetskoy the prominent linguist, a representative of the Prague phonological school. The representatives of traditional Russian phonological schools - Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Schools - give different definitions of the phoneme and differently define the neutralization of phonemes in a weak position. At this, the existence of an archiphoneme as a functional unit is acknowledged not by all phonology specialists. The article describes the main differences in the interpretation of the phonemes neutralization in a weak position (position of neutralization) in the conceptions by N.S. Trubetskoy and R.I. Avanesov. The author characterizes the oppositions of vowel phonemes in modern Russian language and their neutralization taking into account the changes of the orthoepic norm and depending on the type of unstressed vowelism (ekanye/ikanye, different subtypes of akanye). The article also studies the phonological content of vowel archiphonemes (general differential features of neutralized phonemes) and their phonetic realization in different phonetic terms. The extreme case of neutralization of all vowel phonemes denoted in spontaneous conversational speech is shown. The results of the conducted analysis confirm that in the modern Russian language the tendency to simplification of the vowel system continues to exist and manifest itself.